Sunday 21 October 2012

The bits that bring no joy

As a teacher, there are a few things I really DON'T enjoy abut the job I am required to do. For instance, I don't like marking, playground duty, staff meetings just for the sake of staff meetings and a few other systemic things like that. There are also quite a few things I DON'T like about being the responsible adult in the house either. For instance, I don't like laundry, dishes and several other household jobs that take me away from stuff I would rather be doing.

However, they are a requirement of the institution I work for, and of being the responsible adult, and must be done. I have often viewed these things as a chore; a boring and tedious part of my contract (for which I obviously didn't read the fine print well enough for  *smile*) 

Today, tired from a school function last night, I was looking down the barrel of a double whammy *laugh* My house looks somewhat like a hurricane has blown through since I have been doing housework avoidance for a week or two, AND the pile of marking I had to do made Everest look like a mole hill for exactly the same reason. A slight exageration on both counts, but you get my point.

Already tired, the temptation to just walk out into my garden and read a book all day was almost too tempting!

"OK," I told myself, "Big girl pants on and get on with the job!" as well as all of those other things you tell yourself to attempt a task.

I started with a few bits here and there, picked up the dishes and stacked them ("Nah, that's all I can handle of that job."), looked at the laundry on the line, ("Nah, too hot to go out there now") ordered my marking in class groups, ("OK, done with that too") and it seemed I was doing an awful lot of stuffing around, and not a lot of work. I couldn't seem to stop though. I would mark three or four papers, then go and make myself a coffee. While waiting for the kettle, I would wash a few dishes, challenge being, "how many can I wash before the kettle boils?". I would take a five minute break, then mark a few more papers, do a few more dishes, take three things off the washing line and fold them and so on and so on.

All of a sudden, I realised what I had been doing...I had made the whole process a game! How many dishes before the kettle boils, how many clothes off the line before my feet start to burn on the hot concrete (and no, it didn't occur to me to put shoes on, that would have wrecked the game *laugh*), how many papers can I mark before the next ad break on T.V. and so on.

I was also breaking these mammoth seeming tasks into VERY small bite sized chunks.

By 2pm this afternoon, I had finished ALL the jobs, both for housework and for school...yehah!...and Oh my goodness, how did that happen?????

After I finished celebrating the fact that I was done, I did go and sit out in the garden to relax and enjoy a cup of tea. It all of a sudden occured to me (as so many things do as I sit in the garden) that sometimes we do the parts without joy, in order to be able to experience the amazing bits! I couldn't be a teacher if I refused to mark papers or any of those other things...and I LOVE all the other things about teaching. This does not mean that the less joyful parts have to be boring and feel like a chore. 

Finding the joy in all that we do, leads to us being able to quickly move onto the things that make our heart sing!

With love and light
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

P.S. Thank you so much to my special light worker friend who helped me focus this learning today *kisses and hugs*


1 comment:

  1. Thanks for this amazing post. I have spent a lifetime 'making a game' out of the 'stuff' and, especially when I was little, I was told off for it.
    But JOY is embedded in my world and there it will stay.

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